Shameless promotion of mr Hickok45 here, but I went back to good ole fashioned shooting and what I got?
So classify from top to bottom (no poll, just do it manually). Also, no Garands, STG-44 or semi-autos, given these were pretty limited in use compared to bolt action rifles (except for Garand of course):
1 - SMLE MkI and III (Britain)
2 - Kar98k (Germany)
3 - Mosin 91/30 (SU)
4 - Arisaka (IJA)
5 - Type 38 (IJA)
6 - Springfield '03 (US) - I'm going to place this on bottom less because of bad opinion and more because it was phased out by the Garand very soon. But still better than:
7 - Lebel (FRA)
8 - Carcano (Fascist Italy) - this one is the real ugly duckling of all 'em.
Reasons?
I think SMLE kinda tops it. Best magazine, w/10 rounds, excellent smooth bolt, very right rate of fire esp. in well trained hands.
Mosin and Kar98k EVEN, Kar98k had better parts, but Mosin was also great, not that smooth as Kar, but very easy to maintain and rough.
Finally the japanese rifles, although the Arisaka came w/ a really useless monopod. Altogether average, trigger way too hard, useless dust covers, but on par with the others on the rest esp. with trained users.
Finally, the Lebel and the Carcano, I'm not really that fond of the Lebel, but I can't think of a crappier rifle than the Carcano, sorry.
Kar98k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2HwrEDjSf8
SMLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM42kwC4o_s&t=501s
Arisaka Type 44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTzwMyq5eCw
But altogether, top service rifles are undoubtedly the StG '44 and the Garand, of course, followed closely by the SMLE.